Tag: books

Do you remember the name of your local Librarian when you were a kid? The person who helped you work your way through different sections of the library, from the toddler ‘Ladybird’ books through to the Enid Blytons, the Roald Dahls, the Dick King Smiths, the Judy Blumes and the Paula Danzigers? Who helped you navigate your way through the non-fiction for your school projects? Who organised holiday activities which got you touching wild animals, writing book reviews and taking out huge piles of books in order to get a sticker at the end of the summer? I remember Gill, the librarian at High Heath Library vividly. I was in awe of someone who worked with books for a living. The library was divided into a child and adult section, and I still recall how special I felt when I crossed the threshold for the first time, turning right instead of left as I went in.

That library closed years ago and it’s always saddened me that pupils from my local primary school will never get the chance to skip down there, two by two and hear a story sat on those tiny chairs, then frantically battle with the rest of the class for the ‘best’ books to take out. That now looks to become the norm as libraries are faced with closure throughout the country. Some councils are considering closing all of their local libraries.

Closer to home where I live in Balsall Heath, the magnificent terracotta library which greets people as they enter the area is covered in scaffolding and has been for several years. Whilst it’s still functioning and providing a fantastic service, particularly for local pupils, the building needs extensive work. Meanwhile, the library up the road in Kings Heath is completely closed to the public.

A few years ago I was commissioned by a dedicated and passionate librarian, Jenny York, to produce a series of films about the work that libraries in Yardley were doing with the local community. Even back then it was important that they could produce evidence of the impact of their work to help secure funding. The result was seven short films about different projects. There is more information on them over on the ‘Libraries’ page.

One of my favourite films is the ‘Yards Ahead’ film. I think it really shows the passion that kids, teachers and librarians have for their community library. I could continue to wax lyrical about the service, but I’ll let the film speak for itself. Enjoy.

The past five months have been incredibly busy, mainly editing, so my plans to Blog regularly have fallen by-the-by somewhat! I’m taking the foot off the pedal a little bit after too many weekends and late nights at the computer, so I think that this is probably quite an apt point to report back on some of the projects that are now in the can or are near completion.

Posts on some of my recent projects should follow shortly, but in the meantime here is the lowdown on a recently completed project, ‘Yards Ahead 07/08’ for Yardley Constituency Libraries.

I’ve now updated the site and created a separate Libraries page to include information on all of the work I’ve completed for the rather lovely librarians, so you can find out a bit more about the project there. As always, it’s been a real joy to work alongside such dedicated and enthusiastic library staff, whose commitment has meant that thousands of children and their families have had really exciting library experiences. I’ve received a lovely e-mail from Jo Avery at Glebe Farm Library commenting on how well the film captures the enthusiasm of the children. However, as with all of the work I’ve done with them, walk into a Yardley Library and it’s pretty inescapable!

The film was premiered at a Chief Librarians’ conference in Solihull and was well received. Librarians will now be distributing the 200 DVDs I’ve produced to a wide range of people to try and convince others that this way of working can play a crucial role in ensuring libraries meet the needs of local communities now and in the future.

Get in touch!

My film camera and edit suite are tools, community resources to be used. The main limit on how they are used is our imagination. So, if you have an idea for a project, however wacky, however ambitious, however big or small, please get in touch and let’s make it happen!